Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

Opinionistas

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are not that of Daily Maverick.....

Tafelberg — a battle for justice, inclusion and the right to the city goes to ConCourt

Zacharia Mashele and Buhle Booi
By Zacharia Mashele and Buhle Booi
10 Feb 2025
Facebook
3
On Tuesday, 11 February 2025, the battle over Cape Town’s Tafelberg site in Sea Point will go to the Constitutional Court. This is a pivotal case that confronts the enduring scars of apartheid.

After 373 years of land dispossession, the Tafelberg site at 355 on Main, Sea Point, is the beginning of making it right.

On 11 February 1966, District Six – the heart of Cape Town’s vibrant multicultural community – was declared a “white area” under the Group Areas Act. This decree ignited one of apartheid's most devastating waves of forced removals, tearing families and communities apart.

On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, his historic walk on the Grand Parade a symbol of freedom and hope that the wounds inflicted by apartheid would be healed and that the dignity stolen from a nation’s soul would be restored.

Now, on Tuesday 11 February 2025, the Constitutional Court will hear the Tafelberg matter (Adonisi and others v the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town), a pivotal case that confronts the enduring scars of apartheid. In a city where freedom, equality and dignity remain out of reach for the many weighed down by landlessness and poverty, this hearing carries profound significance.

Will the Constitutional Court rise to the occasion, standing on the right side of history? Will it help dismantle the legacy of apartheid spatial planning and pave the way for a more just and equitable South Africa?

The urgent need for social housing in Sea Point


Since the 1980s, the Tafelberg site in Sea Point has been deemed suitable for affordable housing and a portion of it was actually used for thai purpose until the last resident of that housing was evicted in 2014. 

The longstanding hope and call since the closure of the Tafelberg School in 2010 was that the entire site would be used for affordable housing to accommodate the many people in need – such as domestic workers of Sea Point who live in “maids’ quarters” in which they are often not allowed to cook or live with their families.

The Tafelberg site is an ideal, strategic site to redress the spatial legacy of apartheid and to improve the lives of Sea Point workers who for many years have been part of the community – they are not strangers in the area to which they have for so long devoted themselves.

The affordable housing crisis transcends socioeconomic classes, affecting families across the economic spectrum. The crisis is further exacerbated by the influx of digital nomads, a phenomenon that intensifies the housing challenges and drives up rental prices, making it increasingly difficult for local residents – particularly those from low- and middle-income households – to secure affordable housing.

The radical increase in property values in Sea Point calls for the government to use the land it has at its disposal to ensure there are some affordable units available to poor and working-class families. Not only is this considered best practice in many leading cities around the world, it’s vital given that Cape Town is one of the most segregated cities in the world.

Cape Town’s land must serve its people, not speculative interests or short-term gains. Public parcels of land like Tafelberg must be released and developed for affordable housing.

The #STOPTHESALE campaign started in 2016 when it became known that then-premier Helen Zille’s administration decided to sell the site for R135-million in order to build more office spaces, amid a housing crisis.

Since the inception of the campaign there have been nine feasibility studies, including by the Western Cape government, all proving that social housing (a type of affordable housing) is possible on the site. The Tafelberg site is about 1.7 hectares, about two rugby fields.

All feasibility studies were ignored and the sale of the site was set to proceed until the Western Cape High Court stopped it on 31 August 2020, finding the provincial government’s decision to dispose of the site to be unlawful.

The legacy of inaction


On 30 January 2025, the Western Cape government announced its plans for the future of the site, almost five years after the high court set aside the sale and after more than a decade-long fight and campaign for affordable housing.

The province announced that it planned to divide the site into two sections (erfs). About 8,600m² (about one full rugby field) is intended for social service facilities, particularly for persons with disabilities and older persons. The remaining portion of about 7,300m² might be used for affordable housing pending the province’s feasibility studies.

We question how the province came to its decision in light of the public participation process that it announced and then unilaterally suspended with no consultation with interested and affected parties, and without giving a reason for the suspension. The province’s statement is vague and we still need to understand what the mixed-use affordable housing and the Department of Social Development plans envisage.

Be that as it may, many years have been wasted and millions of rands spent fighting to redress the enduring legacy of apartheid spatial planning. This is the time that poor and working-class people on the housing waiting list will never get back, despite promises of inclusivity in the democratic era.

We remain committed to seeing the realisation of the rights of the most vulnerable in our city and for that reason we will continue seeking clarity from the Constitutional Court with respect to the government’s obligations in using public land.

We successfully had the province’s previous decision to sell the site set aside, and have maintained since then that the ongoing litigation has never been a barrier to the site being developed, but that development must be in compliance with the government’s constitutional and statutory obligations

The appeal against SCA findings


The province did not appeal the order which stopped the sale, but did successfully appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) other parts of the case where it was found that it had failed in its obligations to redress spatial apartheid.

Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) and Reclaim the City (RTC) are appealing the matter and intend to argue in the Constitutional Court that the SCA erred in its determination of the issues in a number of ways, including that:

  • It incorrectly reduced the case to a question of whether there is a right to claim that the province and City of Cape Town have to provide social housing in a specific location as opposed to interrogating whether the province and City have acted reasonably in fulfilling their respective obligations to redress spatial apartheid;

  • It incorrectly relied on the “pipeline” of social housing projects and ignored the fact that no social housing has actually been built in central Cape Town areas since the dawn of democracy with no explanation why;

  • It also failed to consider that even the “commitments” to add to the “pipeline” projects intended to be in central Cape Town areas were introduced to the pipeline after initial litigation was launched;

  • It incorrectly approached the interpretation and application of the relevant laws by not interpreting them through the prism of the Constitution when considering the context, purpose and wording of the laws; and

  • It failed to recognise the centrality and significance of spatial injustice in central Cape Town in assessing the reasonableness of the province and City’s conduct in redressing spatial apartheid and segregation.


We need a firm commitment to affordable housing on Tafelberg, not mere exploration. Nine feasibility studies on Tafelberg have already shown that affordable and social housing are possible on the site. What is being explored when the housing crisis continues to compound?

The Western Cape government must prioritise affordable housing for the vulnerable on the Tafelberg site to address the urgent housing needs and dismantle the enduring structures of spatial apartheid. DM

Follow the ConCourt proceedings live here.

In partnership with the District Six Museum, watch the acclaimed documentary, Mother City, on Tuesday, 11 February at 2pm SAST, D6 Homecoming Centre, 15 Caledon Street, Cape Town. This date marks 59 years to the day that District Six was declared a white area. RSVP here.

Sunday, 23 February 2025: 2.30pm SAST at the Labia Theatre, 68 Orange St, Gardens, Cape Town. Tickets at R90 each from Webtickets.

Categories:

Tags: